February, 2008

First off thank you to everyone you commented, emailed, and otherwise gave direct feedback to Mike Nash when he announced the Windows Vista SP1 had RTM'ed .  It became very clear form all the feedback from folks like yourself that you wanted the bits, sooner rather than later.  I do not know if you realize we take your satisfaction and dissatisfaction very seriously. You may not know this, but as the TechNet team we work hard to make sure you are heard.

Well you guys gave the feedback and the availability dates are being moved up, now while I cannot give you exact dates I can tell you this:

• SP1 beta participants: Released
• Volume Licensing Customers: By 2/15 we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers.  Other languages will follow.
• MSDN / TechNet Subscribers: Later this month

I will put a brief announcement when it does go live.  So what were the problems, well the issues seemed to stem from various Vista drivers, Mike talks briefly about that here: Windows Vista SP1 availability for technical customers

To learn more about what is in SP1 take a look here:

TechNet TechCenter: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)

You get to be the judge, click on the picture below and got the search-off web site, click the picture below, run a search and click the check in the upper right to vote.  Happy Searching!

One of the great things about working with search is seeing all of the great facets of the product.  One of the more intriguing aspects I have seen is the faceted searching inside of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).  So what is faceted search?  To understand that we have to look at what makes up facets.  I like to think of facets as the data behind the data, in short this is the metadata and all of your digital information has it.  Metadata can be as simple as information like, date, type of file, author...etc, or complex like, case number, project status, patient ID and so on.  When we work with information inside of organizations we tend to be very descriptive in defining the taxonomy of the metadata to insure that it meets the needs of our business.

So in a nutshell, faceted searching is simply using all the facets (or metadata) of data to see the other potential related documents.  Anyone can run generic faceted searches, they are typically the tag followed by a colon i.e.  genre: rock, filetype: .pptx...etc. However, doing a full faceted search can be very complex to setup a single query so you can add faceted search to your MOSS implementation with some code, I recently learned about.   The code creates a set of web parts that provide intuitive way to refine search results by category (facet). The facets are implemented using SharePoint API and stored within native SharePoint METADATA store. 

The nice thing about looking at search from this angle is that it doesn't matter how facets are crawled into the METADATA store. Any core MOSS functionality will work the same: indexing through BDC, external web sites via HTTP protocols, or local sharepoint sites, libraries, lists. As soon as the content is indexed and META tag assigned, it is available for facets.

There has been a updated version of the Faceted Search code for MOSS located on codeplex: http://www.codeplex.com/FacetedSearch 

Version 2 includes the following:

• Multi-thread processing. 1st thread runs for up to 500 facets synchronously, while the 2nd thread is running asynchronously against up to ~30,000 facets
• Client side refresh (not AJAX) that updates only Facets web part w/o page refresh
• Web part connections to pass Facet settings to the Bread Crumbs
• Extended facet schema now supports:
• Facet icons. Default icon per Facet name complimented by an icon per Facet value
• Friendly names for facet values
• Exclusions. Allow exclude facet when values match pattern
• Built-in wild-card match, especially useful for exclusions
• Improved search syntax, added supports for sentences and quoted phrases

 Faceted Search

http://www.codeplex.com/FacetedSearch

Okay I have to admit, I normally do not watch the pro bowl but now it is another reason to have a party.  Not 1 or 2 Cleveland Browns are going but 6. That is right 6 Cleveland Browns are going!  There was an announcement on Monday telling about the final two to be added, after Tom Brady and Antonio Gates could not make it.  For a write up take a look here:  Anderson, Winslow headed to Pro Bowl

Congratulations to:

1. Braylon Edwards,Wide Receiver
2. Joshua Cribbs, Kick Returner
3. Ryan Pontbriand, Long Snapper
4. Joe Thomas, Offensive Tackle
5. Derek Anderson, Quarterback
6. Kellen Winslow, Tight End

GO BROWNS!!!!

begin Julie Andrews visualization

Windows Mobile 6, Active Sync, Mobile CRM, Mobile OOF, Mobile Device Center, System Center Mobile Device Center.....

These are just a few of my favorite things.

end Julie Andrews visualization :-)

I had a great opportunity to speak with 3 fantastic Windows Mobile experts from the product group.  I sat down with and had some great TechNet Radio interviews with Derek Snyder, Brian Hoskins and Dan Arildson.  Over of the 3 parts we spoke about the top features of Windows Mobile as well as what is coming on the future of working with your mobile devices with System Center Mobile Device Manager.   The main focus of all these sessions was breaking down the barrier on how we look and work with devices that are connecting to our networks. . This session covers Part 1 stay tuned for Part 2 and 3!

To listen to the interviews click here: TechNet Radio

Also, here are direct links to the .wma and .mp3’s:

• WMA: Matt Hester Mobile Features Interview
• mp3 Hi: Matt Hester Mobile Features Interview
• mp3 Low: Matt Hester Mobile Features Interview

Good afternoon all my fellow Ohio State fans!!!!

This book of the month I decided to lift my spirits as well as all of my fellow buckeye fans!  Even if your not a buckeye fan, this is a good football book.  The book is all about the last 115 years of Ohio State football.  So the book of the month is written by Jeff Snook with a foreword by Rex Kern titled:

"Then Tress Said to Troy...": The Best Ohio State Football Stories Ever Told

I know the last couple of years have been tough and I was probably as down as everyone.  So I needed a little pick me up, so I picked this book up and started to read.  Not only did I get my spirits lifted I also gained a perspective on the football team and school that I am nuts about! 

The book goes all the way back and chronicles the history of the program from the very beginning through last year's defeat in the national title game against the gators.  What I loved reading about was all of the insights behind the traditions and coaches that have come through Ohio State for years.  A majority of the stories are compilations of former players and coaches, and is put together in a chronological order.

What really put things in perspective for me was the fact that winning used to be about a few things, Win Big 10, Go to the Rose Bowl and above all else BEAT the school up north!!!!!   Now while I would have loved to be the National Champions every year, and would have liked just one from the last two years.  I can say this, we have beaten the school up north the last 4 years and we have won the Big 10.  So not too bad when you think about and it certainly beats the alternatives, hopefully no one needs to be reminded about the Cooper year's.

So take a look and enjoy the book and let me know what you think!

Go Buckeyes!!!

OH...!!!

I saw an interesting article on the amount of viewers for the Super Bowl on Sunday.  It was  the most watched Super Bowl in NFL History.  With The 97.5 million viewers who saw the New York Giants' last-minute win over the New England Patriots made it second biggest event in American television history.

The Top 5 Super Bowls:

1. XLII (2008) Giants-Patriots 97.5
2. XXX (1996) Cowboys-Steelers 94.08
3. XLI (2007) Colts-Bears 93.18
4. XX (1986)  Bears-Patriots 92.57
5. XXVII (1993) Cowboys-Bills 90.99

So my question is: What was the #1 biggest event in American television history and what was the amount of viewers for that event?

Yesterday I was reading a couple of interesting posts and the general news surrounding the proposed acquisition we made to buy Yahoo:
Microsoft Bid To Buy Yahoo Faces Scrutiny 

During my reading I stumbled upon a couple of interesting posts one from Google's,David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer. He made an interesting comment:

So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

While I feel this acquisition will beneficial overall to users like us, time will tell.  I find it is interesting that I have also read that Google is willing to help Yahoo! out, would that make Google even more dominate with a Yahoo partnership?  A couple of Good articles here:

• Regulators would watch any Google-Yahoo tie-up 
• Google offers Yahoo lifeline to thwart bid

Things that make you go hmmm.

Read the Mr Drummond's full post here: Yahoo! and the future of the Internet 

The other was from Brad Smith, while I am not 100% sure it was a response it was a good quick read.  He makes a nice positioning statement on why:

The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising. The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet

Read the full post here: Statement from Brad Smith, General Counsel, Microsoft 

So the question I have for everyone is this:

What do you think?  Is this good, bad, or in the end will it matter? 

Good overall post from CBS: Would A Takeover Of Yahoo Matter? 

I feel this will put a strong #2 in search and Internet advertising business that has been dominated by Google for years.  Time will tell.

TechNet Subscriptions launched 3 editions of Windows Server 2008 simultaneously with the Windows team’s RTM.

These downloads are available to TechNet subscribers worldwide:

• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter, Enterprise and Standard (x64) X86 is Coming Soon.
  Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys
• Windows Automated Installation Kit 1.1 (x86, x64, ia64)
  Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys
• Windows Server 2008 Multilingual User Interface Language Pack (x64)
  Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys

Happy Friday everyone! Do you want your favorite IT story put into a comic?  Well now you can, I just found a new online comic strip blog:

Heroes Happen Here {Comic Series} 

This is a daily web comic that adapts tech stories from actual IT Professionals and Developers - a web comic that reflects the real lives of IT Hero's such as you.  You can submit your favorite story here, and let me know if you get your story made:  http://www.itdevcomics.com/ 

Here is a sample from a couple of days ago: